What does "avidya" mean? I found this bizarre, but most interesting word in BLOOD PROPHECY.?

Question

I loved the book, five stars and two thumbs up, way up! I read Blood Prophecy in just two days? The epic thriller was not only entertaining; it was truly inspiring. Your opinion of Vlad the Impaler/Dracula will never be the same. Blood Prophecy even added to my vocabulary. But, there was this one word I came across that I couldn't find in any dictionary. The word is: avidya.

What does it mean? The authors must have dug deep into the faded, wrinkled pages of some ancient thesaurus to uncover it!

If this helps, the authors' website for the book is:

http://www.bloodprophecy.com

Answer 1

In Hindi, avidya means illiteracy.The state of one who has not acquired any knowledge.

Answer 2

Avidya is a Sanskrit word that means "ignorance of the true nature of reality that keeps us in bondage to karma."

I got it from www.answers.com.

Below is the link to download one click answers.  All I had to do what hold down the "alt" key while placing the cursor in front of the word avidya in your question and the definition popped up.  Go there to see more information on the meaning of the term.  Apparently, you don't want to be in bondage to karma because it can lead to an unpleasant life.

Hope it's a good thing.  In the TV show, My name is Earl, his Karma had him hit by a car once he won the lottery.  During his recovery, he realized he would be plagued with bad luck forever if he didn't make it up with all the people he had hurt (cheated, robbed, lied to, etc.) in his life.